Posts tagged 'locket'

There is no nicer or more personal piece of jewellery than a locket filled with special memories. It’s the perfect way to keep loved ones close and it can give great pleasure and comfort to know they are always with you.

At Lily Blanche we have a variety of lockets which take photographs - ranging from our highly romantic Vintage Heart Lockets to the bestselling Memory Keeper Lockets in silver, gold or rose gold. These open to take six photographs.

We have recently launched our photo insertion service for Lily Blanche lockets and this is proving extremely popular. We shrink, enhance and print the photos on high quality photographic paper before inserting them into your locket to create a highly personalised gift or memento.

Many kinds of photographs will work but there are a few simple guidelines to follow when choosing photos for the locket. The higher the resolution, the better. A good quality picture will shrink down without losing too much definition. If you have photos from a professional photoshoot, these will work extremely well.

Bear in mind the shape of the locket. Choose an unfussy photo with a clear central image with some space around it. A head shot works well. Two people will also make for a good image but please ensure their heads are reasonably close together. People standing far apart or with heads at different heights won’t work. Groups of people work less well.

Having said that, we haven’t yet come across a photo we haven’t been able to work with. Modern cameras are brilliant and take incredibly sharp detailed photos. However, old photos can have a real charm and we love working with vintage photos. Babies, children, brides and pets all look great in a multi-photo locket.

Theming the Memory Keeper Locket can be highly effective – all black and white images, for example or photos from a wedding as a gift for a bride or mother of the bride can look great. If you have any questions about choosing photos for your family locket, do please get in touch at media@lilyblanche.com

When it comes to romantic and meaningful jewellery, you simply cannot beat a locket. It’s one of the few pieces of jewellery which can be truly personalized and it has a fascinating history. While lockets date back to the 16th century, they reached their peak of popularity in the Victorian era.

Queen Victoria was the Meghan Markle of her day – a trend setter whose patronage of a particular item of clothing or jewellery would send it into the stratosphere. She was also a great romantic. Madly in love with her Prince Albert, the pair would go to great lengths to exchange personalized love tokens.

When Albert gave Victoria a bracelet with eight lockets attached – each containing a lock of hair from one of their eight children – it caught the popular imagination. The Gold chain bracelet had nine enamelled hearts in diffent colours - turquoise for Prince Albert; pink for Princess Victoria; red for Princess Alice; dark blue for Prince Alfred;trnaslucent white for Princess Helena;dark green for Princess Louise; mid-blue for Prince Arthur; opaque white for Prince Leopold and dark green for Princess Beatrice. Each heart had the name of the child and date of birth engraved inside.

The bracelet was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert on November 24 1840 three days after the birth of their first child Princess Victoria. There is an inscription to this effect on the clasp. You can see the bracelet in Kensington Palace where Lily Blanche jewellery is also sold.

Queen Victoria was a great fan of charm bracelets and lockets and this bracelet combines both. She loved sentimental and meaningful jewellery and popularised the trend for lockets.

Lockets allowed the wearer to keep loved ones close at a time when people often endured enforced separation for work reasons and travel was a time consuming business. It was also a way to incorporate in jewellery the new fashion for photography.

At Lily Blanche we wanted to create a truly romantic locket – one which drew on the the history of this wonderful piece. We found inspiration in a number of vintage pieces. We incorporated marcasite and filigree work and decided to shape it as a heart and so the Lily Blanche Vintage Heart Locket came into being.

This is our most romantic locket. We originally made it with a garnet stone but have recently introduced it in blue topaz. We have also made it with citrine and emerald for special commissions for Lily Blanche customers. The different stones give it an entirely different feel.

The locket has a deep cavity and we can fill it with two photographs, or you can add a tiny keepsake or message. The locket comes with a Robert Burns quote from the poem Ae Fond Kiss – “To see her was to love her, love but her and love forever”.

There is no nicer way to say I love you than with the Vintage Heart Locket filled with photographs. It’s the perfect anniversary or birthday gift.